CHAPTER VI* 

 MICROBIAL FOOD POISONING 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



Illness following the ingestion of food, more or less definitely 

 ascribable to the food, has been long recognized. The Mosaic regula- 

 tions in regard to foods forbidden to the Jews are evidently designed in 

 part to avoid the occurrence of food poisoning. In recent times recog- 

 nized instances of food poisoning have been sufficiently frequent to 

 make the subject one of considerable importance, but there are un- 

 doubtedly many instances of actual food poisoning in which the causal 

 relation of the food remains unrecognized or even unsuspected. 



Food poisoning is usually suspected at once upon the occurrence of 

 sudden acute illness in a number of people at the same time, after they 

 have partaken in common of some particular food or foods. The 

 causal relation is especially evident when, as sometimes happens, a 

 large number of people are affected in the same way immediately after 

 eating together at a banquet, not having been associated with each 

 other either before or after the meal. When a smaller number of indi- 

 viduals is involved, the connection with food may be more obscure. 

 For this reason most of the well-authenticated instances of food poison- 

 ing are instances in which many persons have been affected at the same 

 time. Acute food poisonings involving only a few persons probably 

 occur very frequently in the home, but they receive little public notice 

 unless fatal, and are often dismissed as mere " errors in diet," or as 

 " indigestion." A careful study of these cases is likely to be made 

 only where there is suspicion of criminal poisoning, or some other 

 practical end to be served by the investigation. Chronic forms of 

 food poisoning are for obvious reasons very difficult to recognize with 

 certainty and some of the forms of disease the causation of which has 

 been ascribed to chronic food poisoning may eventually prove to be 

 due to other causes. The subject is still in a very doubtful state. 



* Prepared by W. J. MacNeal. 



